Entering Grimaulds place for the first time since he left after his OWLs, he was already feeling the familiar sense of dread and misery. He had sworn to never return here, however 12 years in Azkaban is a good way to change your plans for life.
After seeing the familiar rat on the frontpage of the Daily Profet Cornelius Fugde gave him he knew he had to escape. He had a duty to his godson to fulfil, and hopefully revenge to dish out. Turning into a grim it had been easy to escape, so easy that he kicked himself wondering why he didn't leave 10 years ago.
He had been impulsive, proud of being the black sheep of the Black family. If he had thought like a Slytherin he never would've followed Dumbledore and his Order, he would've stayed safe with his fiancé and she wouldn't have died. If he had thought like a Slytherin he would never have trusted anyone else with the life of his godson, his best friend and his best friend's wife. If he had thought like a Slytherin he wouldn't have left his godson that night at Godric's Hollow, he would've kept him self and then he never would've been pranked by the traitor. All the misery in his life was because he didn't embrace the Slytherin, because he refused his family.
The greatest of all houses the most Ancient and Noble House Black was now a shadow of its former glory, no it was even worse, after being informed that his grandfather died 2 years ago there wasn't even a Lord Black anymore. The House that was so powerful that before Sirius was sent to Azkaban no member had ever been sent there, no one dared cross the Black's. Even his cousin Bellatrix would've gotten off, caught red-handed torturing the Longbottom's to insanity wouldn't have been enough to keep her in Azkaban if Lord Arcturus Black had decided to leave his self-imposed exile. The exile he started the day Sirius left his family and refused to continue to learn his duty as Heir Black.
The younger Sirius would've thought with joy about the destruction of House Black, knowing that the House behind so much of the Dark magic in the world, the inventor of the darkest of curses was almost dead, and the family grimoire would not be opened again. Thinking back, if he had just taken up his lordship he would never have been in Azkaban, how many lords ended up there? He knew none other that Rodolphus Lestrange, and his House was peasants compared to the Blacks.
Walking up the stairs toward the study he wondered where Kreacher was, this House should not be abandoned, clearly no one had activated the lockdown wards. The wards here were unbreachable anyways. But Kreacher should've kept the townhouse in pristine condition not let it rot down like this. It didn't help the house's condition the amount of dark magic the place reeked. Dark Magic drew dark creatures and the creatures would take the house down with them. An unwarded house would not be standing after this much damage being done over the last decade. Maybe no one ever came back here after Sirius' younger brother Regulus died.
"Finally, I was starting to get afraid that the shit-stain of an heir I had was running all my plans and weren't able to escape prison after all." Sirius jumped by the sound of his grandfather, the late Lord Arcturus Black. Turning around he saw a new portrait, talking to him. Wondering why Arcturus seemed to expect his escape, from a prison no one had ever escaped from before. "Don't look like that, of course I knew you would escape. You kept your second form hidden for a reason, right? You never had a trial, got thrown into Azkaban innocent and then just stayed there punishing yourself for the death of your friend."
"If I'm so useless why not just disinherit me for real? Maybe put the Malfoy spawn as heir"
"I'm quite satisfied with your choice of heir, there is potential in the boy, it might end up making up for the lack of heirs I had to choose from. A Gryffindor and a mama's boy, no wonder our House is dead. But we will come back, the House Black always come back. It's time for you to take up your lordship and do your duty before you pass it along."
Claiming the lordship could only be done in a room with ambient magic that would answer your attempt. The stronger your claim the less help you would need from your surroundings. Sirius as the designated heir to the House of Black both by the last lord and magical inheritance would not need to find a strong magical spot like Hogwarts or Gringotts. The ritual room at the Grimaulds Place would do the job. After claiming the lordship, the lord ring appeared on his right hand, and any possible regents would lose their power over the House.
Knowing the Arcturus Black would have plan to return the House to full glory he took his time to get presentable. As a lord he had the option to wear his hair long so a normal wash, shave and change of clothes was all that was needed to transform the prisoner into the lord. All Black properties had abundant of spare wands in case it was ever needed, usually for nefarious purposes.
"I see the magic accepted your claim as lord. Time to locate your heir then."
"Harry? Not that I don't want to find my godson, but what does he have to do with the returning Black to power?"
"The boy has everything to do with returning the House to power. I Have planed for this since before he turned two years old. It's a shame he had to stay uneducated, but there is potential in the boy, so much potential. Do you feel him through the magic?"
"I'm sure I can find him". Happy that his grandfathers plan was lining up with his own intentions to keep Harry safe there needed not to be any arguments over his first step. While he could use the magic to apperate straight to Harry if he weren't behind wards the risk of Harry being with someone that really shouldn't see Sirius was too big. So, the grim was once again running through London towards a familiar pub.
Arriving at the Leakey Cauldron Sirius changed back and disillusioned himself before entering Diagon Alley. Finding Harry was no issue with the magic guiding him. Sitting outside Florian Fortescue looking exactly like his father buried in schoolbooks he was. The shock of seeing him made Sirius feel how destroyed his mind had become after his visit in Azkaban. In absolute panic he struggled to stay still and look at the boy he had left to Hagrid all those years ago, the promise he had made and failed to do. When he finally managed to get control over himself Harry had packed up his books and made to leave.
Following behind Harry out of Diagon Alley and upstairs in the Leakey Cauldron he realised that Harry must be staying her. Perfect, the ease to kidnap him out of one of the rooms here, and hopefully his disappearance would be long enough to get the heir ring on him and stop any magical attempts to track him.
A silence spell on the door succeeded by a silent stunner on his godson and Sirius had already achieved the plan. Calling Kreacher to pack up Harry's things before apperating him to Grimaulds Place.
Back at Grimaulds he levitated his still stunned godson into the study before enervating him.
"Hello, Harry"
"Who are you? And why did you kidnap me?". Sirius could see how terrified Harry looked, but he could also see him looking around like trying to discover any way to escape.
"Sirius Black pranker extraordinaire, and your father's best friend, at your service." Giving a small theatrical bow.
"Huh? And you are the same Sirius Black that escaped from that wizard prison, the one on the news?"
"I see my reputation precedes me. I know I've kind of kidnapped you, so you don't have a choice, but listening to me. However, I first want to really stress that I am innocent. THOSE BASTARDS THREW ME IN AZKABAN WITHOUT TRIAL." Seeing Harry managing to look even more unnerved by the grown 'criminal' shouting. "Sorry Harry, I'm not coping so well with staying in Azkaban just because I wasn't given a trial. I should probably tell you how I met your dad and why I ended up in Azkaban."
Looking at harry for some sort of confirmation that didn't really come, he continued. "If you want to ask about something during the story just cut in, okey?"
"Well, it started on the Hogwarts express before our first year. Coming from famous families we both knew of each other even though we had never met so it was completely random that we ended up in the same compartment. Then at sorting I was suddenly the only Black alive that wasn't in Slytherin and Gryffindor to boot. We ended up in the same room in the tower, alongside Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. We were like brothers forming our own group we called 'the Marauders'. Except Peter we did really well in school and spent most of our time pranking.
When we got older the blood war got worse and worse and in our own way, we felt that we participated in that by pranking the junior Death-Eater groups that were popping up in Slytherin, but of course our favourite target Snivelus, a Death-Eater in the making that was friends with your mother."
"Snivelus?"
"Severus Snape, greasy bastard. Actually, there was a bunch of rumours that he was an actual bastard in the true sense of the world."
"Snape was a Death-Eater, and friends with my mum?"
"Wait, how do you know Snivelus?"
"He is the potion teacher. Keeps bullying me in class, saying I'm an arrogant asshole like my father"
"WHY IS HE A TEACHER, HE IS A KNOWN DEATH-EATER. I'm almost positive he was part of the attack that killed my fiancé, I didn't even realise he escaped Azkaban, we should ask Arcturus later."
"Can you tell me more about Snape and my mum?"
"So, your mum and Snivelus grew up in the same area, it was him that told her that she was a witch after seeing her accidental magic. Then when they entered Hogwarts and stayed friends until we had our owls, during a fight between your dad, me and Snivelus she tried to help him. After he called her a mudblood they stopped being friends. What she told me later was that it wasn't really because he called her a mudblood, but because she realised how evil he was. He was deep in the junior Death-Eater group, and while we were pranking, they threw a lot of dark spells around. They should've been expelled the lot of them. But well, when Snivelus and your mum stopped being friends she realised that we were kind of fighting the war with pranking and she started dating your dad. So fine on the Snivelus point, so I can move on?"
"Uh-huh"
"Well in during our first-year your dad realised that Remus was a werewolf, so we decided to become animaguses. In fifth-year we finally managed it, you see werewolves aren't dangerous to other animals, so we could stay in animal shape and keep him company. Your dad was a stag, I'm a grim and Peter is a rat, should've realised that he was a rat then and there. Since we weren't supposed to be with Remus, we never told anyone else that we were animaguses, I believe the four of us, your mum and Marlene were the only ones that knew.
After Hogwarts we were recruited by Dumbledore into his group 'the Order of Phoenix' that was combating the Death-Eaters, but in 79-80 a lot of the members were killed, while we did as Dumbledore said and tried to capture instead of killing. With your parents giving birth and so many of us dying they started hiding more and not being a part of raids and defending with the rest of the Order. When your grandparents died and James became lord the wards on Potter Manor was temporarily weakened, for a while they would hide in a family cabin in Godric's Hollow.
Because wards take time, they decided to use a spell called 'Fidelius' now in theory the Fidelius sounds amazing, you hide something, and then no one can find it without being told where it is from the secret keeper. Now there are a lot of weaknesses to the Fidelius, but it was only temporarily, yeah. Of course me being your dad's best friend, your godfather and in general a really powerful wizard I was the obvious choice, yeah.
That was when I made the biggest mistake of my life. The prankers we were decided, let's not pick me as secret keeper, let's pick Peter. So, Lily did the spell and they were hidden. Only Peter and myself knew the secret, of course a note was sent to Dumbledore with an ingenious spell your mum did so only he could read the secret and know where they were. Then in a month the wards on the Manor would be strong enough for them to move back in.
Then on Halloween I get this really bad feeling, remembering how sick Peter looked on the meeting two days earlier so I go to visit him at home and he isn't there. Then I go to whom he said was his new girlfriend, but it was a mugglehouse, had never heard of Peter Pettigrew there, of course I apperate to Godric's Hollow and there I see your house with the roof blown off. And your parents were lying there dead.
Hagrid was there saying he was going to take you to Dumbledore, I assume Dumbledore had a proximity spell or something to know to send Hagrid there so quickly. I borrow him my bike while I would go capture Peter. I was an auror so I felt it was my duty both as an auror, but mainly to your parents to capture him before he could hide.
When I find him in a town street he yells at me about betraying your parent before blowing up a gas line, cutting of a finger and transforming into a rat. At this point a combination of grief and exhaustion overwhelms me and I start to laugh. The useless member of the Marauders, the one that never came up with the plans, that barely got 3 newts had just pulled the biggest prank anyone of us had ever done. And then the obliviators and an auror squad shows up, ships me of to Azkaban and I never get a trial."
"Wow, that's a lot to take in. Let's say I believe you, why did you kidnap me?"
"You see, about a month ago Cornelius Fudge was visiting Azkaban, and I asked him for the Daily Profet he had with him. There on the frontpage is Peter, in rat form of course so I decide to escape realising that I have really messed up my godfather duties. I have the Profet somewhere in the house, I can show you later. However, I have messed up so much my life so I decided to recuperate here and make a plan, and that was when my grandfather told me to kidnap you. On that note, Kreacher!" The elf appeared next to him. "Bring grandfather's portrait here"
"Hi Harry, my name is Arcturus Black, the previous lord Black."
"Hi", Harry once again looked uncomfortable, understandable no one was comfortable when Arcturus Black was nearby.
"Grandfather, Harry asked my why I kidnapped him, so you need to explain to him what's happening, because I have no clue."
"That is a bit of a tale Harry, so focus up. You two Sirius, use your brain for once in your life.
I was born in 1901 the eldest son of Lord Sirius Black, his father Phineas Black gave him the lordship when he reached majority so he could focus solely on his duty as Headmaster at Hogwarts. A few months later Charlus Potter was born, the first born of the Potter heir Henry Potter. In 1904 my sister Dorea was born so when she went to Hogwarts, I naturally saw it as my duty to protect her there.
During my later years at Hogwarts what the muggles call the Great War started. Have you learned how wizards played a part during that?"
"No, sir. The only thing we learn in History of Magic is Goblin Rebellions."
"Of course it is. Bearded bastard. After the Statue of Secrecy was enforced the magical communities around the world stopped participating in muggle warfare. That's why the magical map doesn't look like the muggle map, we haven't changed borders like the muggle world. For example, the Iberian Empire still has a magical emperor and aren't apart of the ICW. Another.
However, during the muggle war mudbloods in England and France joined the army and broke the Statue. This was the true start of the Pureblood movement, the fear that mudbloods inability to separate the magical and muggleworld would lead us to be discovered and destroyed like the church tried to do during the fifth too seventeenth century.
What we called the 'mudbloodmovement' started trickled into Hogwarts and during my sixth year while Dorea was in her fourth, she was attacked by eleven boys. Charlus discovered the attack and started throwing curses around leading five of them dead, another four stunned while the last two escaped. While the boys laid there, some of them bleeding out he brought Dorea to me before reporting the incident. We never found out who the last two boys were, but the attack lead mainly led to three things.
Firstly, Phineas tried to ban all mudbloods from entering Hogwarts for the rest of his tenure as Headmaster. Dumbledore is using this to make him seem like an awful Headmaster and get support for mudbloods in the wizarding population. Secondly Dorea and Charlus later married. Thirdly due to what was done to Dorea during the attack on her she became unable to have children and therefor Charlus removed himself from the succession and the Potter lordship went to your grandfather Fleamont Potter instead.
Well after the attack the mugglewar and the Pureblood movement started to combat the mudbloodmovement Gellert Grindelwald came. The Blacks stayed neutral during the conflict at my order because Grindelwald would've broken the Statue, but I could not find it in myself to fight what should have been my side. The same happened during the Blood war, I stayed neutral, but at this point many of my family members started support the Dark Lord. I didn't because Blacks bow to no one and the Dark Lord demanded followers not participants. You with me this far?"
"He is a halfblood"
"Who?"
"Voldemort. How was a halfblood leader of the pureblood movement?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HALFBLOOD?" Sirius could see the rage of his grandfather. While he never accepted the rage against all muggleborns due to what happened sixty years ago, when he was told the story he did know that his family ended up dead from the Dark Lord. The fact Harry claimed him a halfblood did not feel right.
"His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. His dad was a muggle, while his mother was heir to Slytherin or something."
"How do you know this?"
"He told me himself, a couple of months ago. Dumbledore knew, shouldn't it be known. His name and blood status if all his supporters believe that he is a pureblood."
"Of course, Dumbledore knew. Medeling fool. How you could follow that man Sirius, I can never understand. We need to come back to this later, I believe I have more to tell on why I had Sirius kidnap you first. And you have a choice to make.
Back to Charlus and Dorea, when Dorea finished Hogwarts with some of the best grades of all time the both joined the Department of Mysteries as Unspeakables. Not much is publicly known about Unspeakables, you can think of them as researchers. The only publicly known Unspeakable is the Head of the Department as he has a seat at the Wizengamot. Right now, that is Saul Croaker, he should be the great grandfather of your classmate Neville Longbottom.
Well back in 1899 the Unspeakables did an experiment where the sent Elois Mintumble back in time, five centuries, before they recalled her 5 days later. The problem was that when she returned, she was dead and her body had aged all five decades. So, after the research the British DOM managed to make an agreement with all nation's versions of the DOM and outlaw public information about time-travel.
In Britain they made the time department within the DOM. Before Saul Croaker became the Head Unspeakable in the forties, he was head of this department. After him Dorea took over as head of the department and in her team was Charlus, Saul Croaker's son Algernon Croaker and two other Unspeakables. Algernon Croaker made the first time-turner in 1962 the biggest discovery of the time department and also the first time the public knew about the department.
Time-turners are an incredible piece of magic, but also not nearly as effective as you might think. For one the strongest time-turner can only go back six hours. The big hinderance however is how it is almost completely impossible to change the events that have already happened. You can observe them, but changing them for some reason doesn't work. Let's say you go back an hour in time and kill Sirius, no matter how you try to do it, Sirius won't die. Until the hour is over and then you can kill him once again. As far as I know this is the main focus of the time department, trying to create a time-turner where you can change events that have unfolded.
Time-turners are however not the only way to go back in time, as I've already told Elois Mintumble did it 63 years earlier, but all that knowledge should be hidden. If not for your grand aunt Dorea. After Charlus was killed by Voldemort in 1977 she took all the research of the time department, copied it and gave it to me. The moment I touched it she died. As Sirius might attest, I gave up on life that day, my wife was already dead and my little sister died in front of me by breaking her wows as an Unspeakable. After some time, I managed to pull myself enough together to start going through the research and figure out why she gave it all to me. I have multiple theories; she might have wanted to be reunited with Charlus and give her family incredible powerful information while doing it. There is a popular theory that the Unspeakables have seers illegally looked up so she might've known what would happen if she did or didn't give me the research. Or maybe she herself realised that the both the Potter and Black families was without suited heirs and needed help. That is my main theory and what I hope we will be working towards."
Sirius felt sick, hearing how his favourite Black had died wasn't what he expected from the day, while he really didn't understand what she had been aiming towards he had a feeling that his grandfather would get to that quite soon and he didn't think he would like it very much.
"The research that I got from Dorea showed how the Unspeakable had discovered the limitations over time travel through the different current know ways to time travel. The main issue was the inability to travel forward, there is a muggle way to do it, but it is completely theoretic for now so they had no comment on that. The travel method they can use has no benefit as it age your body the same amount as you travel, so why travel at all?
Then another issue Dorea was focusing her own research on was the timeline. She speculated that the timeline wasn't as set as time-turners showed and that time-turners inability to change the timeline had nothing to do with the timeline, but with the time-turners itself. She discovered that the timeline is set firstly after fifty years have passed, but it will be more and more difficult to change the longer you travel back. That means that saving the life of someone that died 49 years ago would be incredibly difficult and magic would fight against your attempt, though she never discovered why and how, while saving the life of someone that died an hour ago could be relatively simple unless you stumbled on another hurdle, namely the grandfather paradox.
The grandfather paradox has been known forever and it questions what would happen if you change the timeline so it effects your past self, because if your past self is changed, then you wouldn't travel back in time in the first place. The tests they performed showed that if you change the timeline so that you don't end up travelling in the first place you will have an unsuccessful time travel attempt and die on the spot, while there will be no evidence that you ever tried to change everything, like you never succeeded to travel in the first place.
Are you still with me Harry?" Sirius understood nothing, he used to be a smart guy, almost acing both his owls and newts, but once again he was faced with issues after his trip to Azkaban.
"Maybe, I'm not sure, sir"
"Good, so I have a ritual from Dorea's research that Sirius can prepare and I hope you will be willing to perform it. While I understand that leaving the world you know it might not sound so tempting I hope to convince you how it will be better for you to do it." Well that explains the plan at least, Sirius was not certain why this was the plan, especially when grandfather just explained that Harry wouldn't be able to change much both due to timeline and due to him being one of the main characters in the magical world, so almost anything might end up effecting his own life.
"From the information I have about you, you grew up with muggles and haven't been thought about the magical world?" Sirius could see Harry giving a small confirmation. "If I know Dumbledore correctly, he probably hasn't told you why the Dark Lord tried to kill you on Samhain in 1981."
"Ehh, no, sir. He said I was too young."
"Horseshit, he just likes to have the knowledge to himself. You see before you were born there was a prophecy. Unfortunately, my sources haven't come up with the full prophecy, however the gist of it is that you are the only one that can kill the Dark Lord. Now to be completely honest, before you told me that the Dark Lord was a halfblood I wasn't too worried about anyone killing the Dark Lord. My focus is on the survival and return of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black. And I hope you can complete your goal while completing my goal, you understand?"
"Maybe".
"The plan I spent the last decade of my life to create is for you to travel 21 years back in time. Due to Dumbledores inability to train you we might have to increase that to 23 years, but wait two years for you to train up first, before doing the travel. Then you will have 23 years from that point to train, make some small adjustments to the timeline. Have at least two children and when the Dark Lord returns you are hopefully a strong enough wizard to defeat him."
"Do I get to decide this? And do I have to decide now?"
"Of course you get to decide. I'm dead and while I can still give you advice the dead cannot make decisions for the living. Besides while I'm sure Sirius listens to what I say, mostly. He will not force you to do something like this. He probably would like it if you stayed. My suggestion is that you start training, get to know Sirius. Talk with portraits around at the Black Manor and then in nine days decide if you want to return for school or not."
"That doesn't sound so bad … wait, did you say children?"
"Yes, you see you are heir Black, unfortunately you cannot travel back in time named Black and therefor only your second born can take the Black name back in 1995 and become the heir after you. As I said the Dark Lord wasn't my concern. I need a strong Black heir, and with the right training and wife you can get me a Lord Black even stronger than myself." Finally, Sirius understood why his grandfather was doing all of this. It was all for House Black, everything else might be fine and a bonus. However, the focus would always be the House. They should swap 'Tourjours Pur' with 'Family comes first'.
"Can I save my parents?"
"No, I'm sorry kid. During the decade I prepared for this I have gathered a lot of 'key events' that have to happen for your past self to end up back here again. I'm afraid this is one of those. You need to survive the killing curse, and the only way I know to do that is the ritual your parents used that both of their deaths, without wand, was used to fuel. If one of them fight back, or don't die to the killing curse, you don't survive. And if they are in another place your life is too different. The same goes for Sirius ending up in Azkaban. But you can conspire to get him exonerated when you are back in 1995."
"And I get to decide this?"
"Yes"
"And you will help me?"
"Yes, we will give you all the help you can."
"No one has ever really helped me before. Where do we start?" Once again Sirius felt like a failure. How awful must Harry's life have been, for him to so easy decide to travel back in time. Give up his friends, see his parents, for the only gain that he might survive against the Dark Lord."
"The first thing I will suggest is doing the name change, as long as you are Harry James Potter you might be found even though they cannot get through wards her nor at the Black Manor. But after changing you name you will be untraceable. The royal sounding name Henry Antioch Peverell would do. Then you can still go by Harry.
Then you should travel to Gringotts to empty the Potter and Black vaults, that will secure you to be the richest wizard in 1972, and maybe the worlds richest person in 1995. After that we will use Sirius to get information about different aspects I still haven't managed to get down while you will gather no outside information so you don't end up destroying your opportunity to start changing things from 1993 next time."
The next years was both the hardest and funniest years of Harrys life. Arcturus had fast explained how he would never have the opportunity to have so many skilful teachers again. Dorea Potter and Arcturus Black alone would rival any single mentor. Even Arcturus with his brash personality obviously cared more for Harry than he had ever felt a grown up do before. Combined with Sirius, and his great aunt and uncle, he for the first time in his life felt loved.
Sirius was a bit of a weird case. A huge part of him still felt like a child, his stay in Azkaban hadn't changed that. But he did feel tired, he was apparently already damaged before he was sent to Azkaban and now it was like he was unfixable. Still, he tried too hard to be there for Harry. They decided to not aim for a father, son relationship. Because once Harry returned, he would be the older one.
The practice Harry did was mainly theoretical. While Arcturus made an effort to increase his magical core that didn't change the fact that his magical core was still weak, and it was limited how much it was possible for it to increase, and how strong of a magical core you could have before you turned twenty anyways. Therefor aiming to get as far as possible on all types of theoretical magical knowledge was a much more important aim. The more Harry knew, the less time he had to use learn it when he got to an age where he could start to push his magical abilities.
The most interesting day Harry had was when Arcturus explained the importance of Harry being a pureblood, both while he was in school and once he would have the option to become a public figure, and maybe even out Voldemort as a halfblood. Harry did not like the idea to remove the traces of his mother. But Arcturus explained that the adoption ritual they would complete didn't actually remove his mum. He would genetically have three parents, but magically he would only have two. James Potter and Dorea Black. However, a normal parentage test would show that so they also did a scrambling ritual that removed all evidence of who showed up on parentage test unless he specifically asked to be checked to claim a house. The blood status would show up, and as both Dorea Black and his dad was pureblood at least 10 generations he would show as pure as it got.
Sirius had done all the preparation while Harry was training and on summer solstice 1995, he travelled 23 years back in time. The ritual allowed to bring as many items as you wanted, it just needed to fit within the ritual circle. Harry didn't even know half of the items Sirius had put in different trunks he was travelling with. The main items he travelled with was of course the obscene amounts of gold they had emptied from Gringotts almost two years earlier.